First Cities and the First Wall
Time again for some palaeontology. In the last palaeontological study we went from the Natufians to the advance of neolithic farming colonies in Europe. Today we need to take a quick backstep, concentrating on the very first real cities in the Near east.
As has been stated before, during the Boller Interstadial Warming Period that followed the Pleistocene Ice Age, Natufian hunter gatherers discovered wild wheat and barley. These two grains became their main stay. In the Younger Dryas cold period, these grain gatherers planted their grain and survived the 1500 year drought. They didn't just survive it, but they thrived. They changed the course of human history.
Even during the middle of the Younger Dryas mini-ice age there was plenty of mountain water gathering in south central Anatolia. This along with their new found farming skills provided them with enough food to live comfortably. They even had a surplus. They had enough surplus that they could spend some time focusing on the arts, but not before focusing on building a couple of cities first.
Asikli Hoyuk
At Catal Hoyuk, and Asikli Hoyuk they traded in their hunter gatherer huts (a short mud brick or clay wall with what was essentially a domed wigwam stuck on top) for houses that were built entirely of mud brick. Even their roofs were made of mud brick, held up by a series of logs built in to the top of the house. At Catal Hoyuk the houses became so compacted together, that they started to build their houses on top of one another. People walked along the roofs to get through the city, an go to public buildings, such as the temple With this version of city planning (none at all) they were able to fit a population of about 3000 people.
One would suppose then that life for these people was just wonderful and great. They had all the food they wanted plus more during a time of drought, food shortages and starvation. Some peculiar eveidence to the contrary can be found in the third big neolithic city, Jericho.
Jericho began as a village during the time of the Natufians. It was originally one of their camping sites during the warming period. They would stay there for extended periods. During the Younger Dryas it became a large village with about 70 dwellings. Eventually Jericho and the surrounding area was over run by others (refugees?). This new group did something that was never done before in human history. They built a large wall surrounding their city. What would possess them to expemd that much effort for a building project of that magnitude, if it wasn't needed?
Now let's go back to Catal Hoyuk. Imagine what the starving hunter gatherers thought when they saw this thing rising up out of the horizon. At first would be awe and maybe fear. But, they would watch (from a distance) and they would see that these people had food, and lots of it. Their hunger would eventually override their fear and trepidations to make a raid. Were they successful in this raid? Probably not, but that would now start to make the citizens of Catal Hoyuk uneasy. In time more hungry people would arrive, and then more, and more. The raids and attacks would become almost constant.
Finally there would be some of them that couldn't take it anymore and would leave. They had already been trading with Jericho, so to Jericho they went. When they got there they came up with a system of defense - a wall.
More on this subject later.
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